The Mother of the American Valentine

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Esther Howland (1828 - 1904) is responsible for making Valentine's Day greeting cards popular in America. She and her father ran the largest book and stationery store in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father sent for fansy valentirnes from England. She was given a valentine from a co-worker and she thought she could improve on such a card. She soon was bringing in 100s of thousands of dollars which is like millions in 2025 USD. In 1879 she partnered with Edward Taft and the American Valentine Co. was born. The American Antiquarian Society now houses more than 3,000 of her cards. Lauren Hewes, the vice president of the collections says "several cards with locks of hair, so some of them can be incredibly personal, like sending a little piece of themselves through the mail." Some of Esther Howland's cards are also on display at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. She died in 1904, an unmarried woman. The picture is from antiquetrader.com